You can have a hamburger as a snack or as a satisfying meal.
While cooking burgers at home, you may spend your entire time worrying about whether the patties will fall apart! If we were to judge that, it would be extremely frustrating.
The time has come to figure this out. In addition to many possible causes of your burgers falling apart, there are also several easy tricks you can use to prevent them.
How To Make Burgers Stick Together? If you want your burger to stay together, you need the right cooking temperature, fresh ground meat, and the right patty preparation technique.
In order to avoid giving up on making your burgers stick together, you need to read on!
Why Do Burger Patties Fall Apart?
Before we can discuss how to fix the problem, we need to understand why the burger patties aren’t working.
It is vital to have the right ingredients, binders, and temperature conditions to keep burger patties intact. The following reasons are likely to cause your hamburger patties to crumble:
Poor-Quality Ground Beef
In your dishes, you need to pay attention to the ingredients you use. Whenever we prepare burgers, using only premium ground beef is essential.
In many cases, people use different cuts of beef in their hamburgers, which is why they end up with a mediocre product.
It is made up of different parts of a cow and contains fat. The time and temperature of cooking vary, therefore. The result might be dry, crumbly patties.
Aside from the issue of ground beef, some people marinate, sauce, or otherwise add a lot of moisture into their dishes. Because of this, the patties are extremely moist and vulnerable to breaking apart.
Low Cooking Temperature
When you cook something, you may take too much care. Some items can be cooked at low temperatures, but burger patties? I don’t like them at all!
Low-temperature cooking essentially removes the moisture from patties. In other words, the patties fall apart because there is no proper moisture.
In addition, cooking your patties correctly at the right temperature will develop a crust and cause the Maillard reaction.
Overworking Burger Patties
When burger patties are pushed too hard, they also come apart! You shouldn’t overwork your hamburger patties, regardless of what the recipes say.
Burger patties can get dried out by overworking them. As these juices start producing steam, it will make the patties fall apart as the steam tries to leak out.
Improper Burger Patty Temperature
Ground beef patties are much softer than ground chicken and pork due to their high moisture content.
They must be chilled before use in order to keep from falling apart. This will keep the meat’s juices along with helping it stick together.
Now that you know how to make homemade hamburgers stick together, let’s move on to the various methods of making them.
How To Make Homemade Hamburgers Stick Together
Knowing the right techniques for sticking homemade hamburgers together is quite simple. So, we put together a list of the best solutions to the problems described above. If you want flawless hamburgers, follow their instructions!
Choose The Right Type of Ground Meat
Here is what you can do to fix hamburgers with ground beef problems:
Choose fresh ground beef chuck or short ribs instead of old ground beef when making hamburgers. They are both able to sear well without becoming dry and crumbly.
Ground beef should also contain 80 percent lean fat and 20 percent fat. It may crumble if it is too lean. You may break it if it’s too fatty.
Choose The Right Cooking Temperature
Start cooking patties at high temperatures as soon as possible. Continue to cook for about three to four minutes on one side. Then flip it over and repeat the process on the other side.
Your burger patty will have a crispy outer crust and be flavorful without falling apart due to this solution.
Prepare The Patties Properly
Burger patties shouldn’t be overworked, as previously mentioned. The following steps should be followed instead:
- The meat should weigh about 4-6 ounces. Make a gentle ball then.
- A disc-like shape can be obtained by lightly pressing the ball on the two opposite sides.
- Give your patties a few minutes to rest. This will reduce the likelihood of the patties falling apart and make them firmer.
- Burger patties should be frozen for 20 minutes for best results.
Chill The Patties Before Cooking
There’s no way to avoid eating hamburgers as soon as they are prepared. The crispy and full patties, however, require a bit of patience.
For best results, freeze your patties for about 20 minutes before cooking.
Do not let them become ice-covered, however.
This could lead to the crumbling and breaking apart of the patties. When they’re frozen, let them thaw for a few hours in the refrigerator. Then they won’t get soggy.
Use Binding Agents If Necessary
In the event that your patties still crumble, your best bet is to use binding agents.
If you’re cooking lots of meat and vegetables in bulky patties, binding agents are one of the best solutions.
It is a substance that binds ingredients together and prevents them from dissolving. As well as moisture retention, they prevent evaporation.
A patty or any other meat item is bound better with an egg than any other binding agent. Eggs can be added to ground beet for mixing with other ingredients.
Don’t overdo it with the eggs, though. In this case, it may be difficult to shape and cook the ground meat mixture.
How To Make Burgers Stick Together Without Eggs
Vegetarian or vegan diets don’t allow eggs as binding agents. Vegan and vegetarian options are available for binding your veg patties.
Flax Seeds
Using about three tablespoons of warm water and 1 tablespoon of flax seeds can substitute for one egg. After that, mix the ingredients together to bind them.
Breadcrumbs
If you don’t have access to flax seeds, you can also use bread crumbs as a binding agent. It is just a matter of tearing some bread pieces and grinding them in a food processor.
When the patty mix is ready, add the prepared breadcrumbs. Bind them together by mixing all of them together. A handful of breadcrumbs and an egg can make your patties extra crunchy and crispy.
Tips To Make The Perfect Homemade Hamburgers
Here are three additional tips you should keep in mind when making the best homemade hamburgers in town:
Use Cold Equipment And Meat
Until burgers are ready to cook, heat isn’t the best thing for them.
When the fat inside your ground meat melts and softens because of hot temperatures, that is why. This causes a loss of fat on the patties, because it is transferred to your hands and counters.
In order to avoid melting the fat, you should avoid using warm tools. For example, use cold grinding blades or plates. Further, ensure that the meat you’re using is slightly chilled before cooking.
Don’t Add Salt From The Beginning
If possible, try to avoid seasoning your burger patties too soon.
Salt will dissolve the meat proteins and draw moisture out of the ground meat when added at the beginning. You would have a springier patty instead of a moist and tender one.
Just a few minutes before you’re going to cook your patties, add salt to them.
Use a Thermometer
It may seem unnecessary to own a thermometer for your kitchen, but trust us, it’s a must-have. You can save yourself from many cooking mishaps with a thermometer if you consider yourself an amateur chef.
A thermometer can be easily inserted into the patty to check the temperature. You can cook your burger to your liking, whether you like it medium rare (around 130 degrees Fahrenheit) or medium well (150 degrees Fahrenheit).
Final Thoughts
Perfectly grilled or cooked burgers can never be denied by anyone. There is nothing more delicious than mixing flavors, smelling mouthwatering, and feeling the delicious texture.
Therefore, why ruin the entire experience with patties that fall apart? Try our solutions instead and watch them work like magic!
